of stolen thimbles and other precious things
by and I think to myself
Summary: based on the prompt 'a stolen kiss'. Outlaw Queen Victorian era au.


tumblr prompt _\- a_ _stolen kiss._

Inspired partly by Peter Pan (2003 live action version) and a smidge of Mary Poppins.

If you've got any other prompts for me I'm twobrowneyedbeauties over there, and I need all the practice I can get. Reviews are also greatly loved 3

* * *

 _00:01, December 25th, 1895_

It was the rustle of the curtains that alerted her of his presence. However hard he'd try, every year, the crisp wind of winter air always filtered through the window, betraying his supposed surprise arrival.

Not that it could ever be much of a surprise really. For it had become their annual ritual - their special secret. The one day of the year where the boy with no home to go to, and the girl who wished to escape hers, each become the person the other needs most.

.

"Regina, can I come in?"

The whispered question was a needless, rhetorical thing really, for every year on this day, at this moment, she waited for him to come in. But the gentlemanly streak in him, born from days gone by, would not permit him to enter a lady's room without permission. Especially not one as precocious and perfect as Regina.

From the moment he first met her, Robin knew he would never again meet anyone like Regina Mills. Hair as dark as the chimney he was just about to sweep. Eyes that could hold all the warmth of the glowing embers beneath his feet. And a gentle smile that curved just so, directed at him. Robin couldn't remember anybody ever looking at him - not at the soot stained rough cotton shirt and trousers he always wore, or the dirt under his nails and skin, but actually at _him_ , _Robin_ \- like that before.

And even now, 5 years on from their first meeting, the answering smile that was revealed to him as Regina whipped open her curtains was just as enchanting, just as welcoming, and it felt like coming home.

.

"I can't believe how much you've changed! I shan't recognise you soon enough!"

They were curled on the bay seat along Regina's window, watching the slow meander of people making their way home from midnight mass. Ladies with vibrant picture hats and warm furs held on tightly to their husbands arms to keep the sharp wind and stray snowflakes off delicate skin. But Regina couldn't care less about the extravagant ladies and their extravagant hats down below. She cared infinitely more about the boy in front of her who she hadn't seen in a year. And she was right that he had changed. The muscles on his skinny, undernourished body had started to fill out into harder and more welcoming shapes that just skin and bones, the his jaw and cheekbones had become more defined, drawing attention to the deep dimples which is winked out at her now.

"I could say the same for you," Robin replied, flashing a playful grin at her, "except that I don't think I could ever forget how stunning you always look."

Regina felt her face flush, and glanced down quickly to hide the smile that also spread across her cheeks. But not one to let him get the best of her, a second later she quipped,

"Well at least the chimneys haven't damaged your smooth-talking mouth, just your eyes apparently."

For a moment they were caught in a mutual silence. Smirks morphed into gentle smiles while eyes took in the sight of home for the first time in a year.

Robin cleared his throat, breaking the moment by looking down at his hands, out to the window, then back to Regina.

"I have something for you," he smiled shyly. Or it would've been shyly, had it not been accompanied by the telltale glint to his eyes that Regina knew came before one of his more mischievous announcements - usually involving new and innovative ideas he'd had about how to make himself more prosperous and famous.

"Oh?" Regina grinned back, "and what might that be then?

Robin scooted across the seat towards her, and Regina felt the breath catch in her throat. It was foolish to hope, she knew, but ever since her 16th birthday, Mother had been insisting Regina start acting more like the lady she was expected to grow into, and though she hated every suggestion of how she should behave now that she was 'becoming a woman,' she couldn't deny that there was one thing that came with the prospect that gave her pleasant shivers every she imagined it.

A kiss.

Her _first_ kiss.

And if she was being honest with herself, it was with Robin that she had been imagining such a milestone to occur with. Of course, her mother would most like faint on the spot if she knew her only daughter was entertaining the idea of kissing a chimney sweep, but in Regina's mind, that only added to the thrill of it.

"Finally decided to find your Christmas spirit then did you?" She quipped, in an attempt to not betray how rapidly her heart was beating at Robin's sudden proximity. He was sitting almost soot-stained hand to silk-swathed knee with her now, close enough that Regina could smell the lingering scent of fresh dirt and dusty smoke, a combination that on anyone else would be repulsive, but on him was just, well, Robin.

"In a way," Robin conceded, with a lopsided shrug. "Actually, I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I'd hoped it would give you a reason to think of me now and then."

 _This is it,_ Regina thought, _My first kiss!_

The words floated from her mouth on an escaped sigh. A hopeful murmur which hovered between them on an invisible string, suspended in flight, until Robin shattered the moment with a, "Is that what this is? A kiss?"

Oh.

The hand that had previously been so close to her right knee, was now turned palm upwards, revealing a well used and perfectly familiar… thimble.

"You thief!" Regina gasped. "Mrs Ghorm almost caned me the day I arrived for needlework and realised this was missing."

For months Regina had searched and questioned and pondered the whereabouts of her first only thimble, eventually deciding it had just got knocked down a crack in the floorboards. Never once had she thought that it might have been stolen.

But then...

 _I hoped it would give you a reason to think of me.._

The initial disappointment that Regina had felt at Robin's gift had now softened into a sense of warmth and, funnily enough, something she could only describe as, love. Trust her to fall for someone who didn't know the difference between a kiss and a thimble.

A puff of suppressed air escaped Regina's lips at the thought, and soon her shoulders were shaking with mirth that she couldn't hold in. It was so beautifully absurd. But so wonderfully _Robin_. And just because he didn't know what a kiss was certainly didn't mean she couldn't show him.

Taking a few measured breaths to try and reign in her joy, Regina glanced up at Robin to find his gaze watching her so intently, and with such tenderness in his own face, that she could do nothing to stop her eyes fluttering closed as she leaned forwards and pressed her lips to his.

It wasn't a long kiss. Certainly nothing as epic and romantic as the ones Regina had read about in her books. But as first kisses go, to be kissing the one person who makes you feel at home, in the early hours of Christmas morning, for Regina, it couldn't have been any better.

"There," she murmured, bringing a hand up to cup his weather-worn cheek. "Now you've stolen my first thimble, and my first kiss, so you'll just have to make sure you come back next year to return them both."

Robin's grin was as bright as her own, and she couldn't help but trace his lips with her thumb as they formed the words,

"That I will my lady."


End file.
